NOLS Instructor Don Carpenter always looks at the snow
crystals that land on his jacket sleeve. His favorite
is the capped column flake, a six-sided design that
he finds particularly beautiful. “People on the
ski lift look at me like I’m crazy,” he
says.

Since 1998, Carpenter’s been taking that same
passion for snow into the backcountry with NOLS winter
students. Part of his love for all things frozen came
from a NOLS Alaska Mountaineering course in 1993.
That’s when, he says, he started “loving
outdoor stuff and teaching.”

When out in the winter backcountry with NOLS students,
whether in the Tetons or the Wind River Range, Carpenter
has found a few tricks for teaching his students to
love snow, too. First of all, he keeps classes short
so students don’t get cold standing around.
Many of his NOLS students have never seen so much
snow, and it’s exciting to see their reaction.
“It’s amazing to get students into a [snow]
pit and see the lights go on,” says Carpenter.
“It’s fun to talk about [snow science]
in class and then go stick our heads in the snowbanks.”

Getting up close to snow crystals never gets boring
for Carpenter. “Snow is an amazing substance,”
he says. “It’s dynamic, falling out of
the sky looking like one thing and then changing itself
throughout the winter. I love looking at the snowpack
and then putting the puzzle together, trying to correlate
different events throughout the winter to how the
snow pack looks right then.”

Indeed, as the winter progresses and snow melts
and accumulates in a continuous cycle, an intricate
pattern develops in the snow layers. Digging a snow
pit and getting in close to touch and see the layers
is like deciphering a record book of the entire winter.
It’s this kind of code breaking that Carpenter
tries to teach his students. He’s also teaching
students how to make smart decisions when they’re
in the winter backcountry. “Snow science is
another tool for students to be able to apply and
travel safely,” says Carpenter. “That
why it’s important to stand in a snow pit and
look at what’s going on.”

With a degree in geology, Carpenter also enjoys
the scientific aspect of topics like snow crystal
formation. “I love looking at crystals that
fall out of the sky,” he says. “Occasionally
I see one that’s really rare.”

But, in general, he just loves looking outside on
a snowy night and saying to himself, ‘Hey, I
can make it out there.’ Carpenter says his body
adapts well to the cold, as long as he changes his
socks a lot, and, if something’s cold, takes
care of it right away.

When Carpenter’s not out teaching students
to stay warm in the wintertime, he’s often seeking
some fresh powder of his own. He’s skied in
British Columbia and Alaska, and this fall traveled
to Patagonia to “just drive and ski.”
And find those snow crystals. “I love living
in the winter,” Carpenter says. “It’s
such a quiet, pristine time in the mountains.”